Warship Wednesday, January 2, 2013 (Happy NEW Year)
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.
– Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, January 2, 2013 (Happy NEW Year)
Here we see the HMS Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up in 1838.
While normally we cover steel ships, powered by coal, oil, diesel, or some other fossil fuel, the Temeraire deserves a special mention. Ordered in 1790, she spent 8-years in the stocks being constructed at the Chatham Dockyard before entering service during the Napoleonic Wars in 1799. Built as a Neptune-class ship of the line, she was a huge 2120-ton 185-foot long battleship of the sail era and as such carried an amazing 98 cannon arrayed on four decks. With each of these guns requiring a 5-7 man crew, the ship when fully manned carried over 700 sailors, officers, and marines.
She helped blockade both Spain and then France before having her moment of glory at the famous Battle of Trafalgar. It was there, in 1805, that she earned her reputation. Coming to the aide of Nelson in the HMS Victory, the Temeraire fought off the 112-gun Spanish ship Santa Ana, 74-gun French ship redoubtable, and 74-gun French ship Fougueux. This fighting was done at close quarters, usually within a football field and often involved ramming and lashing together. She had more than 125 casualties, all of her sails and masts yards shot or burned away, and her starboard hull and rudder head staved in. The battle ended with both Fougueux and the Redoubtable striking their colors and captured by Temeraire.
Trafalgar: The damaged French Redoubtable caught between the Victory (the large ship in the foreground center) and the Temeraire (seen bow on). The Fougueux, coming up on Temeraire’s starboard side, has just received a broadside. 1836 oil on canvas by Clarkson Frederick Stanfield.
Repaired but never the same again, she continued to serve for another decade of the Napoleonic wars, seeing combat against Danish and French ships. By 1812, no longer needed in the line and with her wood in decay, she was placed in reserve. Her guns were landed, her crews dispersed, and she was pressed into use as a first a prison ship, then a receiving ship, victualing ship, and finally as a guard ship, before her old but still majestic hulk was sold to the breakers in 1838.
“”The flag which braved the battle and the breeze, No longer owns her.”
The famous painting of the proud but stricken vessel being towed to scrap “The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838″ by J. M. W. Turner, has sat at the National Gallery in London since 1851. In 2005, The Fighting Temeraire was voted the greatest painting in a British art gallery and an aging RN Commander James “Shaken, not stirred” Bond admired her in last year’s Skyfall movie. Her name went on to grace a steam-powered warship, a Bellerophon class battleship in World War One, but has not been on the ocean since 1921. Today HMS Temeraire is the name of the shore side Directorate of Naval Physical Training and Sport (DNPTS) in Portsmouth.
Specs:
Tons burthen: 2,12058⁄94 (bm)
Length: 185 ft (56 m) (gundeck)
152 ft 8 in (46.53 m) (keel)
Beam: 51 ft 2 in (15.60 m)
Depth of hold: 21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 738
Armament: 98 guns:
Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
Middle gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder guns
Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder guns
Quarterdeck: 8 × 12-pounder guns
Forecastle: 2 × 12-pounder guns
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO) They have one of the largest collections of ships photos from avid martial art enthusiasts around the world, many never before seen. Some of the collection online is at http://www.warship.org/ship.htm
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
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